One Fat Mouse
by Anna Greenway
Summary: Doggett and Reyes get a visitor in the X-Files office.


_This is a re-posting of a very old story of mine. Written about 10 years ago, it was one of my very first stories. I'm posting it here now for those who've queried where they can find all my old work after my site was taken down. So here it is - it's basically unchanged from the original draft (for better or worse), but it does give me a strange feeling to look back at it now. It makes me realise how much my style has evolved. Hope someone enjoys it. Anna._

* * *

TITLE: One Fat Mouse

AUTHOR: Anna Greenway

CATEGORY: D/R UST. Maybe a little humour.

RATING: PG

DISCLAIMER: The X-Files belongs to 1013, Fox and CC.

XXX

It was late afternoon that Monica came around the corner with the archive box in her arms, and placed it on top of the desk with a soft thud. She sighed, brushing her brown hair back behind her ears, and looked to her partner.

"Last one," she said.

Doggett glanced up from his file and then around the office. It was an extraordinary mess. Boxes lay helter-skelter in every space available, stacked like office towers throughout the room, and leaving little space for them to walk.

He nodded. "If we can hurry through these last two, then we should be outta here by six."

Monica's stomach rumbled and she looked across to her bag behind Doggett. "John, can you pass me my bag?"

She took it from his outstretched hand and dug through it until she found her salad roll. Unwrapping it from the plastic, she moved to the bench at the wall and started going through a box, eating with one hand.

He glanced over at her, and froze. Slowly, he got to his feet and placed the folder on his desk. Seeing the boxes in his way, he swore. "Monica?"

Not looking up, she said, "What?"

"Don't move," he said.

Her head snapped up in alarm and he silently pointed at a box near her. On top of the box, looking at Monica with its nose twitching was a small, grey mouse. It was a thin mouse, and if it were human, it would no doubt be called anorexic.

Monica gasped and stared at it. Out of the corner of her eye, she sensed John beginning to move boxes to get to her.

She looked at the roll in her hand and suddenly understood. "You're hungry."

She was about to break a piece of bread off her roll, but was interrupted when her partner leapt at the mouse with a ruler. It sprinted forward and Monica went to take a step back, but forgot about the boxes behind her feet and she tripped and fell.

The mouse disappeared behind the box.

Doggett reached the bench. "Damn. Got away."

Monica groaned. Something sharp was digging in to her back. She opened her eyes and tried to get grip on something to get up, but nothing was solid.

Doggett looked over at her. "Oh, shit. You okay?"

She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. Both breathing hard, she turned her attention to the box. Moving fast,she moved all boxes from the bench, but there was no sign of the mouse.

"We should get some traps set down here," Doggett said.

She looked at the ruined roll in her hand and then thought of the skinny mouse. "Yeah..."

XXX

_The Next Day_

Agent Doggett pulled on his coat and turned to look at his partner. She was still buried in a file. "You comin'?"

She shook her head. "I'll stay a little longer."

He studied her. "You sure?"

She smiled at him. "Of course."

Shrugging, he said, "I'll see you tomorrow," and left.

She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps and then reached quickly grabbed her bag. She pulled out a slice of bread and then got up, heading for the bench. She broke off a tiny crumb and placed it right against the wall. She then took a step back, watching.

"I won't hurt you. Let me help. You must be starving," she said softly.

Time passed, and she was almost about to give up when a little twitching nose appeared out from underneath some paper. Smiling, she watched as it hurried toward the bread and picked up a piece. It bit in to it as though it was the tastiest thing on Earth.

She carefully took a step forward and placed another crumb a little away from it.

It waited until she had moved back, and then hurried toward that piece, eating it as fast as it did the first.

She grinned, and encouraged, she broke off half the bread in to little pieces and put it on the bench.

It ate half the bread, but then it grabbed a piece and scampered away.

Her smile fell. "Where are you going?"

She waited a minute, and then saw it use a cord to climb down to the floor, bread still in its little hands. Her eyes

followed it and it disappeared behind a cabinet.

"Damn," she said. She squashed herself against the wall, but she couldn't see anything in the blackness. She pulled a light out her pocket and shone it in the tiny space.

There sat the mouse in a pile of paper. And it was accompanied by several baby mice. "You have a family."

She watched in amazement as the mother fed its babies, and then she moved toward where she had left the bread. She swept the crumbs in to her hand, and then left them behind the cabinet. The mouse stopped to look at her, as if it were thanking her.

"I have to go now. But I'll bring you some more tomorrow." She smiled at it, and then with her heart lifted, she went home.

XXX

8.07 am.

John Doggett entered the office, eyeing all the boxes still lying around the office. He wanted to get through them as quickly as he could. So he had come in a little early.

There was also something else he wanted to do. Out of his briefcase he brought a stack of mouse traps. Grinning, he placed them all around the office, making sure no corner or empty space went without one. After placing twenty of them out, he sat himself down for work.

XXX

It went on for a week. Every chance Monica got, she put some bread down for the mouse. Sometimes she stayed back from work, others she came in early, and other times it was hurried when John went for a break.

Whenever Monica was out of the office, John toured the office, checking all the traps. And every time his heart fell when he saw no squashed body. "I'm gunna get you," he kept saying, but he knew he was losing the battle.

It was late on a Thursday night when the routine stopped. They had finished looking through the archives, and the office was once again in some form of 'tidy'. Doggett gave an annoyed sigh as the computer crashed. He hit the reset button, and then looked around the office while he waited.

"How's your report going?" he said to Reyes.

"I've nearly finished," she said, not looking away from the screen.

His eyes drifted around the office, and stopped.

"You little shit," he said.

At that, Monica looked up. "What?"

He pointed to the mouse. "Do you see that thing?"

She looked across at the mouse and held back a grin. "Yeah."

"It's tripled in size!" he said.

She shrugged. "I think it's good. She was dangerously thin for a while."

He looked across at her, and tilted his head to the side, thinking. "She?"

She cursed herself and quickly tried to cover it up. "Well, I don't know. I was just guessing."

He looked back at the overweight mouse, glaring at it. He reached behind him for the thickest folder his hand could find, and with it firmly in his hand, he leapt at it, smashing it down on the mouse's position.

"John!" Monica said, running toward him and pulling him back.

"What?" he said. Seeing he'd missed, he pulled away from Monica. His eyes frantically darted left and right, and he eventually spotted it running further up.

Again, he lunged at it. He whacked the folder down, but the mouse put in an extra burst of speed and hurried towards the cord. It slowly crawled down to the floor, and darted behind the cabinet.

Doggett glanced back at his partner. "Cunning little devil."

She glared back at him, trying to force herself to remain calm. "Why don't you just leave it alone, John? It's not harming you."

He got to his feet and ran past her to the desk. He found his ruler and went back to the cabinet. "Why should I? They're a pest, Monica. Don't tell me you feel sorry for it."

With one arm, he reached as far in as he could and started hitting the floor. He continued, and hearing the click of a mouse trap, he pulled back, smiling. "I got it!"

It was then that he saw his partner. She had been standing there with her arms crossed, glaring at him, but then she ran towards him and pushed him out the way. She quickly pulled out her light and shone it behind like she had done many times before. The beam landed on the mouse trap at the far end. There was blood on the wood.

It was like she had been punched in the stomach. She switched off the light and sat back, staring in to space.

"Monica?" said Doggett.

She slowly turned to look at him, and he saw tears forming in her eyes. "You killed it."

He shrugged, completely confused by her behaviour.

She looked back at the space behind the cabinet, and she gave a sob, the tears starting to fall.

"Hey," Doggett said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She turned and seemed to fall in to him. He caught her in his arms and started rubbing her back. "You okay?"

"You killed her," she said.

She clung to him, and he held her. She couldn't bring herself to explain, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

XXX

8.10 pm.

She pulled the report from the printer and smiled. "Finished."

He smiled. "Mine, too."

She grabbed her coat and started getting ready to go. "I'll drop this in on my way out."

"I'll come with you," he said. He pushed in his chair and shut down his computer, before retrieving his report and following her to the door.

She stood back, allowing him to walk out first.

"What a day," he said. "We finally managed to finish the case, and we helped destroy a pest."

She bit her tongue against the second half of his comment and turned, following him out. She pulled out her key to lock the door, and just as she was pulling it shut she stopped.

Through the gap, she saw the mouse. She was sitting high on the bench, and seemed to be smiling at her. Monica looked at

her tail, noticing it was only half as long as it was before, and it was covered in dried blood. Monica smiled at her.

"You comin'?" said John, already halfway up the hall.

She winked at the mouse before pulling the door closed, locking it.

She caught up to John, smiling.

"What ya smilin' at?"

"Nothing. I think you're right. It was good to get rid of the mouse." She smiled at him, and nudged him with her elbow.

He grinned back at her, and they headed for the elevator.

XXX

The End.


End file.
